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Envoy Says U.S. Will Start Afghan Pullout, Slowly

KABUL, Afghanistan — The new American ambassador to Afghanistan took the oath of office on Monday, saying in a succinct but personal speech that the United States would start to pull back from its engagement here — but only gradually.

The ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, a diplomat with deep experience in some of the most difficult postings of the last 40 years, spoke to embassy staff members and senior diplomats at a moment when the Afghan war, while incrementally improved in terms of NATO casualties, is claiming a rising number of civilian lives and the Afghan government remains shaky.

He left no doubt that he saw this chapter of American policy as one when “it is time for us to step back and for the Afghans to step forward, and they are doing so.”

At the same time, he warned that Western powers needed to “proceed carefully” and said there would “be no rush for the exits.”

“The way we do this in the months ahead will have consequences far beyond Afghanistan and far into the future,” Mr. Crocker said. “Frankly, we left the wrong way in the early 1990s, and we all know the history of those decisions: the civil war, the rise of the Taliban, sanctuary for Al Qaeda, and 9/11.”

Mr. Crocker, the sixth United States ambassador to serve in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban government in 2001, takes over from Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry. The turnover at the embassy coincides with a change in the NATO military leadership. Gen. John R. Allen took over last week from Gen. David H. Petraeus as the commander for the war in Afghanistan. General Petraeus will still be involved in the Afghan fight, but as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Ambassador Crocker comes to the job here after serving for decades in the Arab world, as well as Iran and Pakistan. He had retired from the State Department in 2009 after serving as ambassador in Baghdad and had become a dean at Texas A&M University.

This spring, Mr. Crocker agreed to come out of retirement to take over in Kabul and indicated on Monday that he felt a personal sense of duty to do so. “Almost 10 years ago, Ambassador Pearce and I traveled to New York on U.N. business,” he said, referring to David D. Pearce, the new assistant chief of mission, who helped administer the oath on Monday. “We arrived on the morning of 9/11, just as the towers were hit, and we watched the collapse from the Queensboro Bridge.”

Photo

Ryan C. Crocker, left, before taking the oath in Kabul on Monday as the new United States ambassador to Afghanistan.Credit
Musadeq Sadeq/Associated Press

Mr. Crocker reopened the American Embassy in Kabul in 2002, six months after the fall of the Taliban.

In a message as much to Pakistan and Iran, Afghanistan’s neighbors, as to the this country, he took the opportunity to rule out the possibility of permanent bases on Afghan soil, saying unequivocally that it was not part of the United States agenda.

“We have no interest in using Afghanistan as a platform to project influence into neighboring countries,” he said.

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Left unsaid was that long-term bases were another matter, and that if America was providing military and police training to Afghanistan over the next 10 to 12 years — as has been suggested by Afghanistan’s national security adviser in recent days — American military and police trainers would need to live on bases and would need to have safe passage for their supplies.

Similarly, if America is to help protect Afghanistan from terrorists, it will need to have launching platforms for its fleet of surveillance aircraft, which have proved instrumental in detecting insurgent movement, especially near the border.

Ambassador Crocker emphasized the importance to the West of leaving a country that is able to sustain itself — with a working government, an economic base and a military. At the moment, the three branches of government are at a crisis point, with the Parliament at odds with the president and the judiciary.

Mr. Crocker made no mention by name of President Hamid Karzai, suggesting that American interests have less to do with individual politicians than with workable government systems. The goal, he said, is to have “capable, sustainable and stable Afghan institutions.”

A few hours later, the ambassador was at the presidential palace, a large complex built around rose gardens and shaded by tall pines, where he was welcomed by an honor guard and then went to a reception room to present his credentials to Mr. Karzai — a formality, but one that allowed the two men, who had known each other in 2002, to be reintroduced.

An American official who was present described Mr. Karzai as “upbeat” and said that Mr. Crocker took the opportunity to introduce his new senior team, among them four diplomats as well as several other senior Foreign Service officials.

Elsewhere, an American helicopter was brought down by enemy fire in Kunar Province, said Master Sgt. Nicholas Conner, a spokesman at NATO’s Regional Command East. A quick-response force responding to the attack was fired on while coming to the aid of the crew of the helicopter, which crashed about 100 yards outside the base. All of the coalition soldiers returned safely, Sergeant Conner said.

Jack Healy contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on July 26, 2011, on Page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Envoy Says U.S. Will Start Afghan Pullout, Slowly. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe